Annotations on Matthew

In December 1533, a new cycle of preaching on Matthew began in the Wittenberg Castle Church. Luther himself inaugurated the series with three sermons on Matthew 1. Then the preaching on Matthew was assigned to the Wittenberg doctoral student Hieronymus Weller (1499–1572). Behind Weller’s sermons, however, stood Luther, who prepared notes to help his student preach. The notes touched both on the interpretation of the scriptural passages and on homiletical strategies for preaching them. Since Luther never offered a series of lectures on the Gospels, the Annotations on Matthewhave tremendous importance as his fullest systematic scholarly engagement with a Synoptic text.